UNDP: Visit by Swedish Princess Opens New Opportunities for Genomics Cooperation
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The visit of the Crown Princess of Sweden, Victoria, in her capacity as the UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, to Jakarta has encouraged new opportunities for cooperation to optimise Indonesian genomics through the Biomedical and Genome Science Initiative (BGSi).
UNDP Indonesia Representative, Siprianus Bate Soro, stated in Jakarta on Friday that BGSi is a flagship national initiative of the Ministry of Health, supported by the UNDP, which utilises genomic science to strengthen precision medicine and outbreak preparedness in Indonesia.
“There is certainly hope that through this visit, there will be new collaborations. While the nature of the visit was to introduce the programme, there were no more technical discussions held,” said Siprianus at the Biomedical and Health Genomics Centre in the Eijkman Building, Jakarta.
Siprianus noted that BGSi is currently in the process of moving towards optimal functionality, particularly in meeting the requirements for genomic data and data storage capacity.
He explained that one of the critical needs in the development of BGSi is a biobank, or the availability of large-scale genomic data, which is currently still in the collection phase.
Furthermore, data storage capacity also needs to be strengthened. The storage requirement needed to support BGSi is estimated to reach approximately 10 petabytes, whereas the currently available capacity is only around 4.5 petabytes.
This requirement, he continued, demonstrates the significant room for the development of BGSi, both in terms of the volume of genomic data collected and the necessary storage infrastructure.
He stated that the speed of genomic data collection and capacity development is highly dependent on the availability of the budget.
“The Minister himself expressed his desire to collect a vast amount of genomic science data within BGSi, and that much more server data is required; the speed of collecting such data is very dependent on the available budget,” said Siprianus.
Crown Princess Victoria arrived in Indonesia on Friday for an official four-day visit covering Jakarta and Lombok.
Through this visit, Victoria will personally witness Indonesia’s development journey, ranging from genomic science and the digitalisation of healthcare services to the blue economy, indigenous forests, and the communities contributing to a resilient and sustainable future.